| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
DVH
Guest
|
 Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:53 pm Post subject: Pity the poor translator |
 |
|
I>ve just been looking into the cost of translations from UK providers.
I last did this seriously a decade ago. And I>m somewhat surprised to see
prices haven>t budged an inch in ten years.
There>s a starter in French to English translation charging £50 per thousand
words[1], and a seasoned professional charging not much more[2]. This is how
much similar translators were charging in 1998.
Speakers of eastern european languages used to charge around £70 per
thousand words or more. But if this fellow>s charge of 0.08 euros per word
is typical [3], prices for slightly more exotic language pairs have if
anything fallen. Likewise this Slovakian, who charges 0.07 dollars per word
[4].
The existence of large numbers of low cost Indian translators may not
explain this price freeze. There are certainly more of them than there were
ten years ago, but the market has expanded too: it>s allegedly worth 9
billion dollars in Europe and 14 billion dollars worldwide [5].
The number of language graduates has risen, and more people have lived in
different countries, so I>m assuming the pool of available translators has
grown - possibly by a lot. But the level of postgraduate education required
by most agencies has risen too, so some of them must be filtered out.
People are claiming high rates of output though - 6,000 to 7,000 words per
day. I wonder if this is true or typical. The standard used to be 2,000 to
3,000 words per day, but technology may have doubled the rate. I>d be
surprised if it were by that much.
Meanwhile translators' costs have been rising - in some parts of the UK rent
and house prices have almost doubled in ten years. Food and energy costs
have risen.
And lawyers' fees have doubled. Accountants and architects too.
[1]
http://www.proz.com/english-to-french-translation-services/freelance-translator/899090
[2] http://www.proz.com/profile/588668
[3] http://www.proz.com/profile/21000
[4] http://www.proz.com/profile/19411
[5]
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2008/sb2008099_904198.htm
and
http://gilbane.com/globalization/2007/03/consolidation_of_translation_m.html |
|
| |
|
 Back to top |
Lou Ravi
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:45 pm Post subject: Re: Pity the poor translator |
|
|
DVH wrote:
[quote]I>ve just been looking into the cost of translations from UK
providers.
I last did this seriously a decade ago. And I>m somewhat surprised to
see prices haven>t budged an inch in ten years.
[/quote]
[snip]
[quote]People are claiming high rates of output though - 6,000 to 7,000
words per day. I wonder if this is true or typical. The standard used
to be 2,000 to 3,000 words per day, but technology may have doubled
the rate. I>d be surprised if it were by that much.
[/quote]
Could be. There is automatic correction first of all, which though not
infallible is far quicker than parsing the text and correcting by hand.
There are also automatic translators which, while mainly rubbish IMO (I
translate stuff) could probably do a lot of the work, the actual
'typing', so that after they have done their job, the translator only
needs to go through it and turn it into something fluent and correct the
big (and ofte hilarious) mistakes. That depends very much on the orginal
text though, if it is well written, subject, object, verb with normal
adjectives and adverbs, it shouldn>t be too hard for a well written
programme to do a reasonable job, if however it is colloquial or waffle
of the type US academics love then it will be pretty poor. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
[Lnz]
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject: Re: Pity the poor translator |
|
|
On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 11:53:30 +0100, "DVH" <dvh@vhvhvhvh.com> wrote:
[quote]I>ve just been looking into the cost of translations from UK providers.
I last did this seriously a decade ago. And I>m somewhat surprised to see
prices haven>t budged an inch in ten years.
[/quote]
Commoditization
[quote]People are claiming high rates of output though - 6,000 to 7,000 words per
day. I wonder if this is true or typical. The standard used to be 2,000 to
3,000 words per day, but technology may have doubled the rate. I>d be
surprised if it were by that much.
[/quote]
On some very rare occasions, I can do 6000 words a day, using CAT
tools. Generally, 2000 is a sounder and more reasonable estimate. I
quote at 1700/day.
Some guff can indeed be translated at phenomenal rates -- I>m thinking
of a colleague who translated sentimental novels, using voice
recognition software, and could knock off a book a day (or so she
said).
[quote]Meanwhile translators' costs have been rising - in some parts of the UK rent
and house prices have almost doubled in ten years. Food and energy costs
have risen.
[/quote]
Yes. My heating costs have doubled in 7 years. The Microsoft Upgrade
Tax is not negligible, and we get older.
Do not forget, however, that for those that translate into Romance
languages, there is an incredible pressure from in-country
translators, some of whom are offering translation at 3 euro cents /
word, never mind that those rates are unsustainable even there, where
the cost of living is often comparable to that in the UK
As a general rule of thumb, I do not think that translating is, today,
in the UK, a wise career choice (and I have been in it for over a
quarter of century).
[quote][2] http://www.proz.com/profile/xxxxxx
[/quote]
While I did not look at any of the proz profiles you mention, some of
the side effects of proz have been rate depression, reverse auction,
commoditization.
Quite the opposite of the effects that other (older) forms of
translator networking had -- I>m thinking about the venerable
Lantra-L.
When I first joined Lantra-L decades ago, and discovered thousands of
other translators all over the world, I was able to _increase_ my
rates by at least 30%.
HIH
Lorenz |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
|
